WAKAYAMA (Japan), April 24 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- All four giant pandas on loan to a zoo in western Japan will return to China around late June, ahead of the expiration of their lease agreement, the zoo operator announced on Thursday.
According to Kyodo news agency, the 24-year-old Rauhin and her offspring -- Yuihin, 8, Saihin, 6, and Fuhin, 4 -- will depart from Adventure World amusement park in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, for their new home at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China’s Sichuan Province, the operator said.
Adventure World began a breeding cooperation programme with the Chinese panda research base in 1994 and was previously home to Eimei, a male panda who arrived in Japan on loan that same year.
During his time in Wakayama, Eimei fathered 10 cubs with Rauhin and another six with a different female giant panda.
He was returned to China in 2023 and passed away earlier this year.
With the departure of Rauhin and her cubs, only two giant pandas will remain in Japan.
The two pandas are currently housed at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens, which first received pandas from China in 1972 to commemorate the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
-- BERNAMA-KYODO
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